


Howl

by shetlandowl



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha!Steve, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, But not canon Extremis Tony Stark, Established Relationship, Extremis Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, Post-Iron Man 3, omega!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-01-15 08:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12317124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shetlandowl/pseuds/shetlandowl
Summary: A baseline human is precisely what you would expect: just like you and me. A beta is all that and more: the loyalty and devotion of a pack-minded upbringing, the power and healing of the wolf, and none of the fuss of an alpha or omega. They're handsome and bold, talented and historically the subject of fantastic and heroic tales; all in all, the dream for any human inclined to romance.Alphas and omegas... that gets a little trickier.





	1. Undergoing surgery

**Author's Note:**

> As briefly mentioned on Tumblr, this is more me having fun with world building than drafting a real story with plot, or even a beginning or an end. It's maybe not what is typical of ABO (not that there is much 'typical'), but if you give it a try, I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> As always, thank you [ishipallthings](http://ishipallthings.tumblr.com/) for all the betaing <3

“Tony, you don’t have to do this,” Steve whispered - hell, begged - from beside the hospital bed. “Please, this is enough. You are enough, just as you are now.”

“Stop talking,” Tony said before Steve had a chance to continue. “Steve, you’re making me worry, okay, I’m getting nervous here, please stop.”

“Then don’t do it,” Steve said in a rush of hope. “I can’t lose you, too.”

“You won’t. Listen to me,” Tony interrupted in a raised voice, and he tried to be gentle with his words even though he had already lost count of how many times he had repeated himself. “Dr. Vexler is the best heart surgeon on the Eastern seaboard. Between Extremis and the wolf, nothing—”

“Between Extremis and the wolf, Dr. Vexler is going to have to fight your healing—”

There was a gentle knock on the door, and they both looked up to see the nurse standing expectantly in the doorway. “Mr. Stark?”

“Rogers-Stark,” Steve corrected with a low growl, and Tony rolled his eyes.

“Dr. Vexler says we can’t delay any longer,” he told them in a gentle voice, politely ignoring Steve’s unwarranted animosity. “Do we need to reschedule?”

“No,” Tony said before Steve could get a word out. Steve’s lips thinned into an unhappy line. He glared at Tony with all his fear, with all his love, but at last, he stopped arguing.

The nurse turned away to go inform the staff that the surgery was on, and in their brief moment of privacy, Steve took Tony’s left hand in his own and brought it up to his lips, pressing the back of his hand to his lips before kissing his knuckles. His ring was absent.

“I love you,” he said, his voice unsteady with emotion. “I love you so much, Tony, you, not the omega, not—”

“Alright!” a different nurse called from the doorway, announcing their entry in advance in case Steve was still on the warpath. “Time to get this show on the road. Mr. Rogers, if you would please join the others in the waiting room?”

Despite promises to the contrary, Steve was reluctant to move and let them take Tony away; a soft growl rose in his throat, unprompted and anxious, until there was another knock on the door.

“Let’s go, Stevie,” Bucky was saying as he made his way past the nurses hovering near the door, a safe distance from Steve. “Let the professionals do their job.”

Their scuffle was thankfully brief, but even as Bucky led Steve out of the hospital room, Steve couldn’t help growling at the nurses with his teeth bared.

“Nat!” Bucky called out to the waiting room with a grunt of effort, “Nat, a little help?”

There was no hesitation; Natasha was at Steve’s other side in a heartbeat, and together she and Bucky pulled him further into the waiting room so that the nurses could get Tony ready and moved in for surgery.

“If they hurt him—”

“We’ll kill them all,” Natasha soothed, rubbing gentle circles over Steve’s back.

“He’s not an idiot,” Bucky said, a little louder than necessary, because it was a little sick how Steve was comforted by Natasha’s promise. “Tony knows more about this shit than you ever could.”

But Steve only whined in his frustration, the fight leaving him as anxiety and guilt swelled to the forefront of his mind. He sank into one of the chairs in their private waiting room, his face buried in his hands.

“I need him, Buck,” Steve whispered, picking his head up a moment later to stare off in the general direction they had rolled Tony’s bed in. “I need him, not an omega, not—not pups. I don’t—he doesn’t believe me.”

Natasha watched him thoughtfully for a moment, then gently asked, “What if it’s what he wants?”

“I wish I could believe it. He hasn’t been the same since the alpha pack in Minnesota made the news,” Steve complained, forcing his fists calmly down into his lap so he wouldn’t be tearing at his hair. “Four assholes desperate to breed—desperate enough to kill. And then Extremis? He probably thinks it’s fate.”

Bucky rolled his eyes and dropped into the seat on Steve’s other side with a sigh. “He’s an engineer, he doesn’t believe in fate.”

“If he wants a family, he’s never said!” Steve cried all of a sudden, and he had to grind his teeth to keep from shouting. “He just—he keeps coming back to, to those damn stereotypes. Alphas want a pack, alphas need offspring, alpha—alphas are not fulfilled without pups—as if I ever thought he wasn’t enough—if I lose him, too, I—”

“You’re scared, I get it,” Bucky tried to interject, but Steve just talked over him. 

“How? You’re a beta,” he spat, with more venom than necessary. “You’re charming, you’re gorgeous, you’re human and—”

“—the Winter Soldier?” Bucky glowered, patience running dangerously low, and Natasha immediately gave him a cautioning look.

“—what Bucky is trying to say, Steve,” Natasha said in a gentler voice, “is that this is about Tony, it’s not about you. He hasn’t been able to change since Afghanistan, Steve. It’s a whole part of his life he’s missed out on. This is his chance to get his life back.”

In a long stretch of silence, Steve looked down at his hands. He found himself unable to say anything. He had spent so much energy trying to convince Tony that he had never grown up with that damn fantasy of having a family—sickly and small and weak as he was then, mating would have been a death sentence. Sure, some alphas were less accepting of their bad lot in life, but not Steve. Steve had never imagined himself as ever being fortunate enough to attract an omega, let alone one as extraordinary as Tony Stark.

But to be robbed of his freedom, of his power to turn, to return to the natural wolf and run for days, to romp and play. To know your mate’s scent, to know it just long enough to feel the difference when his scent becomes their scent.

He looked up at Natasha and Bucky. His good friends; his best friends. Both of them were betas, both of them had once known that freedom and been robbed of it in adulthood. Maybe they had a point.

After all, Tony’s surgery was a chance they would never have.

“Thank you,” he eventually said. “For being here.”

From his left, Bucky just shrugged and grinned. “No sweat. But, if you have a son,” he said, his voice now borderline threatening, “remember that James is a better name than Nathaniel.”


	2. Let's get it on

“You are ridiculous.” 

“Lay off,” Steve mumbled as he chewed, however slow and unenthusiastic. 

“But you’re Captain America,” Bucky said without irony, “you’re going to be fine.” 

“It’s not about me, Buck. It’s the pups. And if this is what Tony wants me to do, I will do it.“

Bucky eyed the small mountain of bland food Steve was trying to get through. As if by magic, he looked even more skeptical now than he had a minute ago. 

“It used to be that alphas only had to quit smoking and not drink twice a day before a mating,” he mused while Steve picked at some of the spinach salad. “The fancy folk would even eat fruit.” 

“He is the son of a black widow, Buck. A two-time black widow,” he corrected, and that fear somehow made his food more palatable than all the salt and red pepper flakes he had already tried to season it with. “Without the serum, he’d kill me the minute I turned.” 

“Without the serum, any omega could’ve,” Bucky reminded him drolly. “You really think just cause his dame killed two alphas—“ 

“Just?” 

“All I’m saying is, yeah, Tony is exceptional. Your pups are lucky they’ll have an omega like him. But you’re the one with the serum,” he said a little more gently, “don’t you think this is... a bit much?”

Steve dutifully swallowed another mouthful of spinach - damnit, the endless spinach - with his lemon cucumber water and tried to sound more indignant than sarcastic when he said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yesterday, you were eyeing Clint’s cheeseburger like it was offering to be tied down in a breeding stand,” Bucky drawled, to Steve’s sad agreement. “It’s barely been a month. You have two months left before his heat. You sure you can do this?” 

Steve looked down at his chicken and his salad again, but this time, his bottomless portion of bland nutrition only made him smile. “I never dared to think of myself raising pups, Buck. Ma knew I had no chance at surviving a mating, and she never made me feel like being without a family was bad. You can’t miss what you never wanted, right?” He added with a bittersweet humor, shrugging as if to make it feel more casual. “But now? I have a chance to have a family with my mate, Buck. Even if they are mostly inheriting from their omega, I can make damn sure what little they get from me will be what they deserve. Tony went through hell for this. If all he wants is that I change my diet, I will eat all the boiled chicken breast and spinach and walnuts and pH balanced alkawhateverwater money can buy.”

***

“Tony, Dum-E is dusting the Tower again,” Steve called into the workshop as a way of announcing himself. “He’s on his sixth rotation now, you might want to consider sending him a cease and desist order before Natasha starts shooting at him.”

“He’s been plugged into HGTV at his charging station,” Tony explained without missing a beat. “He was looking for new ways to organize different workspaces, and now he’s addicted.”

“Sure… so, what are _you_ doing down here while he watches HGTV?” Steve wondered as he came closer, trying to keep the question light-hearted. 

Tony looked up at Steve’s question and paused what he was doing to watch him approach, though there was no trace of amusement or victory in his expression, only a bitter relief. 

“How is she?” he asked instead of answering Steve, and his partner didn’t seem to mind. 

“Pepper is fine,” Steve answered in a quiet, gentle voice, and he leaned against the desk in front of Tony, close enough to touch but not so close that he was in Tony’s personal space yet. 

Tony observed his caution for a moment, then pulled Steve in closer until he could rest his forehead against Steve’s chest; Steve immediately brought his hands up to lovingly cradle his head, combing his fingers through Tony’s greasy damp hair and softly brushing it away from his tired face. 

“Is this what it’s like? Having a pack?” he wondered, and Steve frowned a little at the unexpected question. 

“I don’t know,” Steve eventually said. “When I was born, the war—there was no time to have a childhood. My omega enlisted; he died when I was young. My alpha, she… well, for someone like me? She wouldn’t let me imagine it.”

The silence stretched out between them. Steve continued to thread his fingers through Tony’s hair, gently working out the matted knots that had formed in this last stretch of neglectful workshop-binge, until finally, Tony spoke again. 

“I feel like there’s one every month now,” he mumbled quietly, as if wary of his own words. “The alpha packs. What if one of them finds us?” he asked Steve, voice uneven despite his best efforts. “If they kill you? Our pup? I won’t be good for anything those first days, it will be defenseless. I’ll be theirs, I—”

Inwardly, Steve cursed the news for ever reporting on the growing rash of alpha packs. He hugged Tony closer, holding him so close that no bad thoughts or people could ever reach him. “No-one is getting past me, Tony. I promise you that,” he growled into Tony’s hair, punctuating it with a kiss. “You and our pup will be safe.”

“I’m afraid,” Tony confessed to him with quiet words. “What if I wasn’t meant to have a family? I was just ...evidence for my alpha. Proof he was strong. Howard and his black widow,” he spat, hackles rising at the poisoned memory. “We weren’t… family. I won’t know what to do, I didn’t have an omega, I didn’t have a pack. Didn’t know I ever had one, until Stane tried to take it from me. Then Loki. Hydra. Killian. Should we even be doing this—”

Few things in the world would frustrate Steve more than hearing fear in his mate’s voice without having a tangible source of it to attack. This was no villain, no immediate threat - at least, not yet. Steve’s fists and teeth and all his power were good for nothing in this fight. 

“Tony, look at me,” he whispered and straightened to meet Tony’s gaze. He tried not to let the small smile he had mustered slip when he saw Tony’s red eyes. “Tony, you worked so hard to stabilize Extremis for yourself. I begged you not to; and even when you did it, I begged you not to do the surgery. You are all I need, Tony. You are enough, and you always will be, for me,” he reminded him, not for the first time, and not for the last. “But you put your life on the line twice just for the chance to have a family. That’s what you have always done, whether you see it or not: you gave us a home, you provide for us, you create gear and weapons that protect us in the field. Why would you think you don’t already know what an omega does for his pack?” 

Tony blinked at him in wonder, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing, and he was so busy trying to find a fault in Steve’s reasoning that he almost missed his question. “Uh, because my mom, she never—”

“She did what she could, Tony,” Steve told him gently. “An omega protects and provides for the whole pack. Her status helped her alpha, and in turn helped provide more money and status to you, so she went along with it. It’s an alpha you’re unfamiliar with, Tony. My alpha would starve herself when I was hungry; she sold family heirlooms so I could have medicine. You should have been Howard’s world. He should have cherished your clever mind, your big heart. That’s the alpha’s purpose, Tony, he is the last defense between his pups and everything else. Don’t you see? Yours should have lived in your shadow, instead of hiding all his flaws behind you.” 

“You think we can do this,” Tony finally realized, looking up at his mate in awe. “You’re not—you mean it, you think we can do this?”

“I know you can,” Steve answered honestly. “And I have no doubt that you deserve it after all that you have been through. I’ll do my best to keep up.”

“Keep up?” Tony marveled with a watery laugh, still shaking off his disbelief. 

Steve couldn’t help but grin at his laugh, and he leaned forward to press a soft kiss to Tony’s forehead. “You thought Captain America would be as good at raising pups as punching Nazis?”

“Not in as many words,” Tony answered happily, and without doubts. Some things were obvious, even to him. “But I know Steve Rogers is.”


	3. Nesting

“What are we looking for?” Sharon wondered as she slowly made her way down the aisle of children’s picture books. 

Bucky snorted quietly from the other side of the same shelf of books. “Or, tell us what you haven’t already bought.”

“We’re looking for good books,” Steve replied, addressing only Sharon’s question. “I want all grounds covered: if the pup is an alpha, an omega, or a beta—”

“You should only be so lucky,” Bucky tossed in from the peanut gallery. 

“—so long as he or she is healthy, it doesn’t matter,” Steve glowered with an unanticipated bite, and both Bucky and Sharon looked up at him in surprise. Steve stared back at them for a moment, then deliberately cleared his throat, rolled his shoulders back, and tried to regroup. 

“Man, you are nesting so hard,” Bucky snickered, at the same time as Sharon cooed. 

“You’re so cute! I just got chills. Did you get chills?”

Bucky smirked across the aisle and all but preened. “Chills.”

“Shut up,” Steve complained, but he turned his attention to the shelf of books he’d been studying to avoid treating them to the color rising in his cheeks. “Whatever—just, be useful. Books you think are useful to a little person learning about human society.”

“I got beta books covered,“ Bucky told Sharon, who nodded and replied that she would cover books written for baseline humans. 

“Did Erskine say how the serum would affect your instincts?” She wondered some minutes later, crouched down to inspect a potential keeper on the low shelf. 

“Not really,” Steve answered, a touch distracted; once the book he’d been considering was placed back on the shelf, he returned to his answer. “He said I would be healthier, stronger—strong enough to join the omegas on the front lines.”

“Which sucked,” Bucky added, unsolicited. “I liked you better with the other alphas, washing up our laundry and cooking.”

Unseen by either of them, Steve weighed the picture book currently in his hands, considering throwing it at Bucky’s head. The inevitable damage of a book-throwing fight could be costly to the store, though, so he shrugged the inclination away and put the picture book in his basket instead. 

“How about you learn to wash your own damn crap like an adult?”

Bucky gave him the most disbelieving face and gestured to himself from head to toe. “With this body?”

“I thought that was exaggerated,” Sharon started to say before the two of them got going, only pausing briefly to consider her wording. “Alpha nesting.”

Steve thought about her question, feeling stuck on how to explain it to a baseline human. “It’s not as extreme as people say, but it isn’t wrong,” Steve said finally, turning to face her as he spoke. “I know Tony wouldn’t leave me. But I still feel that I won’t deserve a mate—and certainly not a pup—if I don’t prepare. Family is everything.”

“But aren’t you worried people will see you at all these stores, making all these purchases, and figuring out you’re an alpha?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Bucky said before Steve had a chance. “Secret’ll be out anyway, if Tony survives.“

Sharon stared at him, wide eyed, then looked over at Steve. “If Tony—what?”

“No! No,” Steve hurried to assure her, because even the thought of his mate being in danger nauseated him. “No, Tony is safe—Tony is safe.”

“Omegas always survive,“ Bucky added, just in case. “But, if it was the other way around… Tony wouldn’t make it.”

Steve whipped around a bookshelf to glare and snap at him. “ _Bucky._ ”

“Omegas fight to kill,” Bucky continued telling Sharon, choosing to ignore Steve’s warning since she looked confused. 

“It’s for their own protection,” Steve promised. “It’s not malicious.”

“But you love each other,” Sharon said, doing her best not to turn it into a question. “You wouldn’t kill Tony if he was the alpha, would you?”

“That’s not something you can control,” Steve answered after a moment, quietly. “There’s dangerous creatures in those woods. Bears, wolves, snakes—hawks and eagles. Alpha packs,” he added a moment later with a sneer. “Alphas who are too cowardly to fight for an omega go after mated pairs with newborn pups. They gang up to kill the bonded alpha, and since the omega is too weak to protect the pup, they kill it, too. Once the pup is dead, the omega goes into a reactive heat. The omega is theirs, then.“

“I thought those stories were… propaganda,” she eventually said, grimacing at the thought. “Like you guys knowing women’s menstrual cycles by smell, or omega aggression, and alphas knotting with humans.”

“Oh, god,” Steve shuddered in visceral horror, and Bucky couldn’t help but agree. 

“That’s ancient hearsay,” he said, “could be bullshit, could be real.“

“And we can’t smell anything better than baseline humans, either,” Steve promised, but then he paused, reconsidering. “…well—”

“— _we_ can. Not, like, the menstrual cycle,” Bucky clarified, “but that’s not the wolf, that’s the serum.”

“And omega aggression is unfair; they always attack first because they’re the first to protect the family—“ Steve continued, which Bucky faithfully also picked up. 

“—Alphas are the stronger of the two, so they stay behind as a last defense,” he said. 

“That’s why omegas enlist, too,” Steve finished. “For their families back home. So the pups and alphas have a chance.”

“Except shrimps like him,” Bucky added innocently, hooking a thumb Steve’s way (which Steve rolled his eyes at and batted away with a picture book). “Not even the army wanted him, did you know that? Everyone should know that.“

“Remind me again, who carried you back—“

“Boys! Boys,” Sharon called over them, gaining Steve’s attention (which Bucky used to his advantage to smack his best friend upside the head with a little book). She snatched the book out of Bucky’s hand before Steve tried to retaliate. “Alright, guys! We’ve got forty minutes before the store opens to the public. You want to find the kid some books or not?” 

“Yeah, _Steve_ ,” Bucky agreed. “My future godchild needs you to focus.” 

“Why am I with you two idiots without Tony,“ Sharon sighed, finally giving up on them and walking towards a different shelf of books. “You deserve each other.”

*** 

“Are we funding a library?“ 

Steve whipped around like a deer in headlights to see Tony draped against the doorframe of the pup’s bedroom-to-be. 

“Uh,” he replied. “I—uh, well. Yes. No?”

“Well, we should,” Tony agreed easily, either way, smiling at him as if Steve had never been more dear to him. “If that’s what you think is right. What’s the point of being the fourth wealthiest family in the world if our kid doesn’t get a library?”

“We might be slipping down the charts soon,” Steve whispered cautiously. “I, uh.”

“Were totally ratted out by JARVIS, so you can stop sweating,” Tony said with a growing smile. “You knocked down a wall?”

“I didn’t want her to play where she sleeps,“ Steve admitted, and Tony couldn’t resist stretching to kiss his cheek. 

“Show me.”

Without a word, Steve took Tony by the hand and led him through the bedroom to the new playroom Steve had added earlier in the day with an axe (and Thor’s enthusiastic help). What had been the next-door guest room had become a continuation of the pup’s designated bedroom, and the two full walls of the room had been outfitted with floor to ceiling bookshelves. 

Nearly a quarter of the shelves had already been filled with Steve’s hoard of children’s books, including that morning’s loot. They ranged from picture books to read with the little one to practice the alphabet or colors, to story books for bedtime. Separate from the rest of the books, Steve had started two shelves to introducing engineering and scientific concepts. Tony, naturally, gravitated towards the latter. 

“The elements?” He wondered out loud as he thumbed through the colorful pages. “The water cycle?”

“It’s never too early,” Steve said quietly, shrugging bashfully. Tony reached to rub his arm gently in comfort, coaxing him to continue. “Especially since, soon, half my life will probably be dedicated to carrying our baby out of your workshop.”

Tony glanced up from the cartoon water drops leading him through the phases of water. “Are you already blaming me for our pup’s interest in learning and science?”

“You’re going to be the pup’s hero,” Steve promised, smiling at the thought even has he said it. “Or do you think it’ll be easy raising a genius’s baby?”

Tony laughed, delighted. “Flattery after marriage? What's this, what are you after this time?” 

“Can’t I just be impressed by you?” Steve wondered innocently, nosing in closer until his lips brushed the top of Tony’s ear. “Why do I have to be after any—” Steve continued in a whisper, until the sudden and insistent blaring of the klaxon interrupted them. 

Tony fisted Steve’s linen shirt at the same time as Steve got a hand on the waist of Tony’s pants, and they held on to each other as they turned to see if there were any obvious incoming threats. 

“Sir, a disruption of the time-space continuum originating from Yankee Stadium,” JARVIS informed them. “Smilodons have passed through and are currently interrupting in the bottom of the third. Yankees ahead.”

Tony clicked his thumbnail over his wedding band three times in quick succession despite having half a mind to let the Yankees take this hit. Steve, instead, looked down at him in confusion. “What’s a smilodon?”

“Cats,” Tony answered absently, taking only a moment to steal a kiss before he hurried off in the direction of the nearest balcony. Steve ran in the direction of his own suit, or the most direct route that still allowed him to keep an eye on Tony through the window long enough to watch Tony leap over the protective railing without pause or hesitation, and see for himself as the armor fitted itself around his mate in mid-air. 

The sight of it always warmed his heart with pride. 

“Captain Rogers,” JARVIS announced out of the blue. “Sir extends an amendment to his earlier definition. The smilodon is not any cat: it is the saber-tooth cat.”

Steve stayed upright and continued running towards the case housing his suit and his shield, which JARVIS had opened for him. 

“There’s a saber-tooth in Yankee Stadium?”

“No, Captain,” JARVIS answered. “There are twenty-seven of them.”

*** 

“Steve,” Tony whispered as gently and as sweetly as he could. “Please. Put it down.”

“How can you say that?” Steve cooed, [cradling the spotted little ball of rumbling, playful love](https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fimg00.deviantart.net%2Ff2ba%2Fi%2F2014%2F008%2F0%2Fe%2Fbaby_smilodon_and_motherly_spider_by_psithyrus-d71d598.jpg&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEvBD9yOpuSNn1B4gr8heUgPMLyTg) to his chest. The smilodon cub chuffed softly in delight, pawing at the dangling chin strap of Steve’s helmet. “Hello darling, hello beautiful—what big eyes you have!”

Tony flipped up his faceplate and inched closer to Steve, who somehow seemed to miss the outraged mother growling a short distance away. “I’m sorry, _dear_ , but are you missing the _big teeth?_ ”

“Your little ruby nose,” Steve continued with a beaming smile, rubbing the kitten behind the ears and kissing its soft black paw pads. “Your big brown eyes… you’re going to be such a big girl, such a big, beautiful girl.”

“Leave him,” Bucky murmured over the comms. “He’s a lost cause.“

“I did _not_ go through hell for my mate to turn into cat chow,” Tony glowered back, and when the cub’s saber-tooth mother clawed her way closer, he instinctively raised his hand to aim his repulsor at her. 

“Can’t you talk to it?“ Clint said from his safe perch in a tree dozens of yards away. 

“It’s a fucking saber-tooth!” Tony snapped. “They didn’t exactly have Feline 101 at MIT.”

“You’re a wolf, she’s a cat,” Clint continued, and while he was at it, he cracked open a beer. “Quadruped to quadruped.”

“What’s that burr doing in your little pawpaw?“ Steve asked in a soft sing-song, pressing a tender kiss to the center of the cub’s paws while he carefully, gingerly worked the source of pain out from between the cub’s toes. The kitten yowled as the burr tugged on the delicate fur and skin, and she squirmed unhappily in Steve’s arms. 

The mother roared in anger. After hours of fighting, hours of concerted effort by the Avengers to herd the creatures back through the rift between worlds, the mother seemed prepared to pounce into a hopeless attempt to retrieve her cub. 

“There—there we are, there it is,” Steve cheered after precious seconds of work, scratching the kitten’s ears until she chuffed happily again. The mother gave pause then, long enough to observe Steve release the cub in her direction. 

“Goodbye, angel,” he called after her, even waving after them as the mother smilodon snatched up her rascal cub at first chance to run back for the rift where her world was. “Be a good girl!”

“For the record,” Clint chimed in once the rift was sealed and they could spare the time for curiosities. “You could’ve taken her, right?”

Tony gave him a flat look. “Is this an insult—are you insulting me? Steve, is he insulting me?”

“I don’t think he means the armor, Tony,” Steve reasoned, though he, too, eyed Clint with suspicion. “She’s bigger than I am. Much bigger. And a brave mother; and did you see how playful her cub was? That curiosity! She—”

Tony stepped in even closer to Steve, nuzzling into his mate’s hair. “Soon, baby,” Tony promised, so quietly only Steve would hear him. “Soon, we’ll have one of our own to bring home.”


	4. A family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Minor-character death.

The first signs of Tony’s impending heat interrupted their normal routine a few weeks later than expected. 

It had been a morning like any other. Steve naturally woke up early, and he used this time before Tony woke up to make their day’s worth of lemon cucumber water and to get their breakfast vegetables and eggs steamed. Once breakfast was ready, he would carry it back to their bedroom with their morning glasses of water and the morning paper. Tony’s water and food would typically wait for him to wake up so that he could pick at it here and there while he got ready, while Steve would lounge in bed, reading the paper while finishing breakfast. 

Except, today, Steve was finishing the sports pages and Tony had not woken up yet. He frowned to himself, concerned by the unusual change of events, and he leaned over carefully to press the back of his hand to Tony’s forehead. 

His husband was burning up. 

“Tony,” he whispered, and he gently rubbed at Tony’s shoulder. “Babe, wake up?”

Groggy and uncooperative, Tony only grumbled a few choice words under his breath before he finally deigned to open his eyes and ask, “What you want?”

Steve stared down at him, temporarily frozen by the sudden swell of excitement in his chest. Despite the clear signs that he was running a fever and under the weather, Tony’s pupils were blown wide. 

“Tony? How’re you feeling?”

Tony rubbed at his eyes and yawned a mile wide, and by the time he had stretched a little and sat up against his pillows, his eyes were back to normal, sleepy and unimpressed by the morning. 

“Just, alright, I guess,” he mumbled through another yawn. He frowned a little, squirming experimentally once or twice against the bedsheets. “Uh. Sweaty?”

“You might have a fever,” Steve supplied cautiously, doing his best not to leap to conclusions. 

Tony rubbed at his head a little. He was a little groggier than usual, but nothing that made him feel sick with a cold, let alone the flu or a fever. His limbs responded slower than usual, his skin was more sensitive and aware of the textures he came in contact with all across his body, and one by one, the signs became so numerous that they were undeniable. 

“Steve,” he whispered with a growing smile. Beside him, Steve watched him with so much joy and so much affection that Tony half expected him to spontaneously combust from excitement. “This is it.”

*** 

Tony announced the temporary handoff of SI to Pepper later that same morning. The next afternoon, Captain Steve Rogers gave a statement to the press about his and Iron Man's decision to step down from the Avengers’ first team. They would remain in the city and on call for emergencies, but otherwise, Sam Wilson was to step into the role of Captain America, and Riri Williams would pilot the next generation of armor as Ironheart. 

The added detail of their decision to start a family, and to leave the human society for the foreseeable future, was not explicitly announced. It wasn’t, however, impossible to infer. 

*** 

Hours after Steve had announced their relative retirement from Avenging, the two of them left the city and drove up to the Stark family holiday home in upstate New York. Tony’s fever was growing increasingly problematic by the minute. He was too dizzy now to stand, and it seemed he was chugging water by the gallon just to sweat it out. 

Steve put away their luggage in the villa and locked it up before coming around to Tony’s side of the car and opening the door for him. With a steady hand, he helped his mate out of the car, and in the privacy of their own property, he helped Tony undress. 

Uncomfortable as he was, Tony didn’t waste a moment to turn. His bones cracked and shifted, and his muscles swelled and expanded. The experience wasn’t as painful as it looked, but for him, it had been years. Since Afghanistan—since the arc reactor was needed to help keep him alive—he had not had the freedom to turn back to the wolf. 

Without the practice, it took him several minutes before he found his balance on all fours, clawing at the soft grass under his paws with curiosity and longing. He may not have had the advantage of the serum as Steve did, but he was the son of a devastating omega, and he had inherited his powerful build from her. He was a long-coated black wolf with grey eyes and expressive ears; they swiveled in every direction, easily telegraphing his abundant excitement to take in the world again with his long-forgotten but innate senses. 

Beside him, Steve’s transformation—well practiced and eased by the convenience of Erskine’s serum—was so immediate, that neither of them were prepared for it. 

To an omega in heat, the appearance of an unbonded alpha was about as subtle as stampeding locomotive. To an alpha, the scent of an omega in heat was fundamentally irresistible. 

Steve, a white wolf nearly twice Tony’s size, should have had his mate defeated and pinned with nearly no effort. Yet twenty minutes passed before the black wolf, bleeding and limping from the fight, surrendered to its deserving alpha. 

*** 

It was not until after the mating that the pair had a chance to be introduced, to learn each other’s scents in the scant hours before their bond settled and they expressed their shared scent. Together they left the Stark estate behind, and under cover of the new moon, started their journey into the wilderness in search of a territory to claim as their own. 

Their trek was a peaceful and happy one. At first, their interactions were cautious and respectful. They continued their search straight through to morning, resting regularly as they needed to recover from their injuries. Before long, the alpha grew into the habit of herding its mate into tucked away patches of sunshine, where it would be more comfortable. The omega would show its appreciation by obliging its mate’s wish, and resting in such a way that it could settle its muzzle over the paws of the other. 

Days later, when they had finally fully recovered from their injuries, the dynamic, too, had changed between them. As their bond grew and they came to learn more of each other’s quirks, they soon grew from cautious mates to playful partners, romping after each other through the underbrush and dense forests, mercilessly tackling each other down hillsides and into rivers. Their good humor was not wasted, and they came to hunt seamlessly as a pair, stalking and bringing down their preferred prey with the kind of lethal efficiency that mature pairs might develop over long years. 

Weeks passed easily, until eventually, hundreds of miles deep in the forest, an outcropping in a small hillside near a stream caught the interest of the omega. It poked its head in first, and after chasing out a displeased couple of rats, it turned to its mate and sat down at the entrance of the little den that was to become their home. 

*** 

The wolf’s gestation period typically lasted no longer than seventeen weeks. In all of that time, the omega had no power to turn into its human form, and it was mostly passive in its own defense; no confrontation was worth losing its precious pup. The alpha spent most of its time maintaining the perimeter of their territory and hunting, responsible now for protecting and feeding its mate. 

While most omegas were delighted to receive four or five bunnies in the week, the white wolf came into the habit of providing its mate with a full-grown deer every two days. Bewildered and speechless, the omega soon learned to gnaw on bones and antlers for hours to appease its concerned alpha, who would often refuse to rest if it feared the omega was still hungry. 

As time wore on, they spent less and less time together; the alpha grew increasingly anxious about maintaining their territory to keep the omega safe, and would hardly stop into the den to rest with its mate anymore. Although they avoided confrontation or hunting while carrying, omegas were far from immobile - many were known to run and play with their alpha right up until the final week. But in this case, their good fortune had run out ten weeks after their bond solidified. For the last six to seven weeks of the gestation period, the black wolf had become so large and so uncomfortable that it would barely come out in the sunlight. The alpha returned frequently to maintain the den, clearing the remains of meals and everything else that was found, keeping the space spotless for its mate and future pup. 

When the day finally came that the white wolf returned to the sound of soft squeaks and whimpers from the den, it understood why. As it sat outside the den waiting with a desperate but determined patience for its omega to call for it to come in and meet their young, the alpha listened attentively to the delicate, insisting sounds demanding the omega’s attention. 

From the mouth of the den, the alpha heard not one distinct new voice, or even two. 

It heard seven. 

*** 

Twelve hours passed before the alpha was allowed to enter. It had tried to stick its head in a few times to catch a glimpse of the pups, but the omega had been fiercely protective of the little ones while they were still so small. So when the alpha finally heard the omega calling, it sprinted into the den at once, proudly bearing a fresh kill for its mate. 

The seven pups had not yet opened their eyes, and at the unknown scent of another wolf, they shrank against the familiar warmth of their omega. The alpha placed the sizable rabbit within the omega’s reach before lying down near the pups, cautious of its every movement. The fat little pups squirmed and squeaked for attention, but this time, the omega did not wash their wet faces like they wanted. The alpha glanced up at its mate, overwhelmed in the moment by the task left for it. 

When the alpha’s nose first touched one of its pups, the blind little creature yipped and batted at the unfamiliar snout on instinct. Proud beyond measure, the alpha inhaled the pup’s scent and lovingly swept its tongue over the pup’s face, washing it and offering comfort. 

The pup huffed and snorfeled in reply, licking at its own nose. The omega was soon there to nuzzle and reassure the newborn, and little by little, the alpha and omega nuzzled and washed their pups in turn until the pups had learned to also find comfort in the scent and touch of their alpha. 

It was not until hours later, when the seven pups had settled happily between the warm belly of their omega and the protective muzzle of their alpha, that the omega nosed at its mate to bring its attention elsewhere. 

Between its forelegs and obscured against the long, black coat of omega’s chest lay another curled-up pup. It was a tan wolf, rare in and of itself, and it was smaller than the rest. The alpha watched it with a confusion that bordered on anger, because the fragile little body was unnaturally peaceful, and so very, very small. 

It was not until the omega settled its muzzle beside their eighth pup’s unresponsive body that the alpha understood. 

Once their seven pups were happily asleep, the alpha padded its way quietly to the omega. It made no sound, but nosed at their eighth pup, which the omega continued to faithfully protect against its chest. When the omega did not readily lift its head to reveal the little body, the alpha neither snapped nor snarled. Instead, it nuzzled its mate’s neck, offering what comfort it could. 

Eventually, the omega had no choice but to give in. The alpha collected the small body and carried it out of their den with care. In a small patch of wildflowers near the river, the alpha dug a grave for its lost pup. It tucked the body away gently and then covered it up to hide it from other predators. 

That night, the alpha did not return to the den, but chose instead to stay curled up over the shallow grave in the field of wildflowers, watching over its stillborn pup for the first and only time.


	5. Finding home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Minor character death.

Between the ages of two and three weeks, the pups started to open their eyes. The alpha was nearly inseparable from its pack in that time while it and the omega both eagerly awaited the seven minor miracles.

The first pup to curl out of a lunch-time nap to blink up at the world was a white and green-eyed beta—a waddling, milk-drunk copy of its proud alpha. Its first memory of the world were the big noses, long snouts, and wide, awe-struck gazes of its alpha and omega looking back at it. 

It was love at first sight. 

The pup yawned lazily and clambered closer to its parents, wedging itself between their muzzles to settle in for its first act in a world it could see: a cozy re-enactment of its earlier nap. 

The magic of seeing their pups opening eyes for the first time soon became eclipsed by the pups’ sudden and devoted interest in causing trouble. Once the pups had laid eyes on the world, they tried every imaginable trick and feint at their disposal to get out there and explore it. As far as the alpha and omega were concerned, there had been no gentle transition from their experience with chubby, lumbering pups who wanted nothing but milk and sleep, to the sprinting rascals who were too curious for their own good. Whatever they might have said about a learning curve, theirs had been more of a nose-dive than a steady climb. 

Corralling seven adventure-starved pups in a den meant for two quickly became a tireless challenge for the omega, especially in the absence of its partner, whenever the alpha was away for a hunt or to put down a challenge in their territory. Finally, after six weeks, the omega relented and allowed them to play near the mouth of the den. Boisterous and carefree, the pups chased and tackled each other with gleeful enthusiasm under the watchful eye of their parents. 

*** 

Summer turned to fall, and soon the deer and fat rabbits became more difficult to find. The alpha had to venture farther each day to find enough meat to provide for its mate and seven pups. On thin days, it might only return with a badger or two hares, then quickly returned to the hunt. Those days, it feared most for its omega, who dutifully waited for the pups to eat their fill before tending to its own hunger. 

The alpha itself ate last. 

On the days where the alpha brought down an elk or deer, it could afford to stay with its pack for a longer stretch of time. More than the omega, who hovered protectively over the little playing clusters of pups to break up excessive aggression, the alpha would stretch out comfortably to delight in the palpable joy its pups exuded tumbling around and play-fighting. Although it cared for all its pups equally, the reality that their three alpha pups would one day need to fight for the right to mate was never forgotten. Therefore, as the pups grew and their play-fighting turned into more than tumbling practice, the alpha involved itself more directly with its three alpha pups to challenge and encourage them in their fighting skills, and increase their future chance of survival. 

*** 

The pups’ winter coats grew in as the winter nights became longer and more bitter. The little den that had been too small in the summer for their spirited pups now became a cozy space that helped them all to stay warm. The pack wound around each other until all paws were curled against a warm body, and noses were buried in someone’s coat. 

When the first snow fell, the pack had been out on a small practice hunt. The omega would venture away from the pack in short bursts to find what it considered suitable prey while the alpha watched the pups; if successful, the omega would return with a hare or opossum that was still alive, and release it for the pups so that they could practice their hunting skills. 

All it took was one snowflake to catch the attention of single pup for them all to become so enamored and distracted that the hare ran free. 

They pawed and chomped at the falling snow with endless enthusiasm—enough so, that the alpha and omega both settled down to enjoy the moment (and the good fortune of their pups tiring themselves out so effortlessly). No sooner had the pups learned how to lick the snowflakes out of the sky, than they noticed how much of it dusted the grass and barren branches around them. They leapt at the dry, snow-covered underbrush and barked in excitement at how the cold powder would pillow their paws and their weight in a way the world around them never had before. 

Together, the seven pups ran amok tirelessly in the snow for days on end. Their passionate excitement was a stark contrast to the season itself, a direct product of their alpha and omega’s hard work to keep them protected and well-fed in a time where prey was sparse, and the competition fierce. The cold season had turned their lush, temperate territory to an unforgiving and inhospitable place. More and more predators dared to challenge the alpha’s territory as they, too, struggled to survive. The alpha gradually concerned itself less with the distant corners of their territory, but became increasingly ruthless in defending the dozen miles closest to the den. 

After all, the dead of winter was a desperate time when predators would turned to unthinkable acts to feed themselves and their young. 

The worst such confrontation saw the alpha returning in the middle of the night, limping its way back to the den and hauling a five-hundred pound brown bear. The pups feasted and played on the enormous carcass for hours, but the omega was less impressed with its mate’s kill. Once they had all eaten their fill, the omega herded the pups and its wounded mate back into the den, and purposefully turned them all into a new sleeping position so that the alpha would lay in the center of the pack that night. 

The thought of its mate facing a hungry brown bear was enough to frighten any wolf, and until the alpha was in demonstrably better shape, the omega would not allow anyone in the pack to stray far from the den, including its mate. 

(Especially its mate.)

*** 

As long and cruel as the season had been, the winter nights eventually gave way to spring mornings. Cautious flowers started to break through the monotony of the snow-covered landscape, and here and there, the chirping of birds became more noticeable in the mornings. 

Early in the season the pack woke up to a warm, bright dawn to find one of the beta pups missing. 

Frantic and inconsolable, the alpha and omega took turns searching the woods for the pup straight through the day and the night. Even with its enhanced senses, the alpha could track the pup’s scent several yards out from the den, but no farther, as if the pup had been plucked out of thin air. 

The alpha and omega howled themselves hoarse for weeks calling for their lost pup in the hopes that it would come bounding out of the wilderness like any other day. The other pups were confused, but too young to understand; they searched for their sibling with an excitement that wouldn’t wane, more than a little impressed by the beta’s impressive new genius at hide and go seek. 

Eventually, the pups tired of searching for the beta and turned to playing amongst themselves again. For the alpha and omega, the loss of a second pup whom they cherished, and watched grow into a vibrant little menace, was devastating. Many months would pass before they learned to accept that their little beta would never return to the pack again. 

*** 

Spring rejuvenated the forests and brought back the natural bounty they once enjoyed. The pups, nearly a year in age, had grown into powerful, if easily distracted, hunters that occasionally joined their alpha in pairs on its ventures for prey. They went in small groups at first so that the pups could learn how to coordinate and cooperate to bring down their prey, and as practice gave way to instinct, they all soon came to hunt as a full pack. 

Together, the alpha, the omega, and their six pups could bring down more sizable prey such as full-grown moose and bison. At their age, the individual pups were growing into an impressive size themselves, and developing efficient pack hunting strategies was fast becoming necessary to keep them all well fed. Even with the alpha and omega sleeping at the entrance of the cave, it was also quickly becoming clear that the den was too small for six one-year-old pups. They stayed as long as they could, but as the nights became warm enough for them all to sleep outdoors, they finally abandoned their den and their territory to begin the slow migration back to the Stark country home, and to civilization. 

*** 

When the pups first saw the home, they were beside themselves with excitement. The stairs to the outdoor patio, the swimming pool, the jacuzzi—even the half-dozen parked sports cars looked like the best private playground they had ever seen in their lives, and neither the alpha or omega were fast enough to stop them from running wild all over the property. They chased each other around and over the cars, scratching up the paint job with their claws as they scrambled for the safety of the high roofs. They wriggled their way into the empty jacuzzi and slipped and slid all over the tiles for hours. They raced up and down the stairs, across the deck, and in the last moment, their alpha showed up to snatch one particularly brave beta before it tried to take a running leap for the roof. 

  
_artwork by[yawpkatsi](http://yawpkatsi.tumblr.com)_

They waited until their pups were sufficiently exhausted before gathering them in the backyard. There, their alpha sat with the pups, and watched as Tony slowly changed into his human form. 

The pups whined their confusion, and the larger of the alpha pups shouldered its way to the front to growl at the unusual creature that had taken the place of their omega. The first sign of aggression was immediately put down by their alpha, who made it clear no aggression towards the human would be tolerated. Instinctively, the pups recognized that their alpha was their protector, and in the end, while it was present, they were safe. Then, following the alpha’s example, they padded forward to the hairless biped and nosed at his palm. 

His scent was different in human form, but something familiar from their omega remained unmistakable. It was not the scent of any wolf, or any omega, but the specific scent of the bond that had formed between the alpha and omega after they mated: the scent of the pups themselves. Their pack scent. The pups blinked up at their omega in human form, and although they were suspicious by the change in shape, they trusted their sense of smell. 

One by one, they nuzzled closer at their omega in human form, seeking the comfort and affection they had not received for the two minutes the omega had been ‘missing’.

“Hi, kids,” Tony rasped, his voice hoarse from extended disuse. The pups looked up in wonder with their ears perked up with curiosity, shocked by the sounds they heard from from their omega. Their alpha was the only one who laid its ears flat back against its head in delight, even coming forward at last to nuzzle at its mate. It had not heard Tony’s voice in over a year. “Come on, I’ve got something to show you.”

He rubbed and patted each of their pups, doting on them in a way he hadn’t been able to for all this time, before he reluctantly stood up to lead the way to their basement apartment. His palm-print unlocked the door there, and he held it open for the alpha to walk through first. The pups, suspicious of this unusual structure and behavior, shuffled in close together after their alpha. Tony walked in last, and closed the door behind them so that nothing else would follow them in. 

The basement apartment was a simple and open structure, full of several low king-sized beds fitted side by side, and a kitchen that was dominated by its three large freezers. 

“Babe, how about a grocery run?” Tony suggested mildly, and although the pups could not understand the sounds he was making, the alpha got up off its haunches and shook its head. Tony sat a large bowl down in the sink to fill up with water, then walked over to the door to let it out. “If you take more than thirty minutes, I’m coming after you.”

The alpha whined back at him, then turned to its pack of unnerved pups. It gave them a smile and a soft bark of endearment before trotting out of the house and returning to the woods. 

Bewildered and a little scared, the pups huddled together and watched as Tony sat down several large bowls of water on the tiled kitchen floor and covered the beds and deep-set couches with bedsheets and blankets before he turned back to his wolf form. The omega watched its pups from a distance for a while, then gently called for them. 

The pups were beside themselves to have their familiar omega back with them, and immediately pounced on it in welcome, crowding around it and demanding affection. The omega whined and nuzzled at them all in turn, soothing their fears until the pups were calm enough to feel curious once more. As one by one the pups started to poke around and explore the space, the omega padded over to one of the water bowls and lapped down some water. 

More so than addressing its own thirst, the omega was demonstrating to its pups how and where to drink in this new environment. Soon, the pups were crowding around the water bowls, gulping down large mouthfuls at a time. 

Not long after the pups had drank their fill and found themselves comfortable, cushioned spots to lounge, a muffled series of scratches at the door informed them of their alpha’s return. 

Again, the omega turned to its human form so that Tony could open the door for his mate. A few feet from the door, the alpha sat beside the fresh carcass of a stag. The pups, smelling the tempting and familiar scent of meat, bounced to attention and rushed out the door. 

But for the first time, the alpha snarled at them and stood in the way of their meal. They all but tripped over themselves to jump back, never having seen their alpha possessive of a kill before. Moments later, Tony followed them out of the apartment with a small jar of pills and a hunting knife. 

“Just a second, kids,” he promised, kneeling so he could more easily cut off a large piece of the rump meat, and cut that down to eight generous bites. He lined them up, then cut a little slot into the fillets where he could stuff a pill. He held out one of them for the alpha, whom he trusted to show the pups what to do. “Steve?”

The alpha responded immediately by gobbling up the whole meat fillet, pill and all. Tony couldn’t help but smile at it and even affectionately rub at the alpha’s ears in praise, before he, again, turned back to his wolf form to do the same. 

One of the two betas was the first to creep up and swallow down a piece of the meat like its parents had done. Immediately, it was rewarded by the alpha, who licked the pup’s snout and nuzzled at it with pride. It didn’t take the other pups much more to follow along. 

Once they had all eaten their pieces, both the alpha and omega settled down a little farther from the stag, signaling to their pups that it was their time to eat. The hungry pups did not have to be told twice; they attacked the large, fallen animal with the kind of hunger that only young creatures in the midsts of growth spurts could muster, and by the time they had picked it clean, the alpha was already returning with a second deer for the family. After all, it and the omega needed to eat, too. 

*** 

Thanks to the marvels of modern medicine, twenty-four hours after they arrived at the country home the eight members of the pack were parasite free, and ready to live full-time in the house. The pups were quickly getting used to their parents changing from wolf to human form. For bedtime, especially, they would take turns so that one of them slept in wolf form and the other in human form so that the pups would always rest feeling safe. 

During the day, Tony and Steve spent a handful of hours in human form just so that they could talk to each other and to their pups, getting them used to the sounds of human speech. Still, it seemed the most exciting part of human life was the salt-water pool. Once they got it and the jacuzzi set up again, the pups almost refused to rejoin them on dry land again. After long days of swimming in the pool, play-fighting, and hunting for a meal or two, sleeping on firm mattresses beside the crackling fire in an air conditioned apartment was more luxurious than anything the pups could have imagined. 

The summer passed with endless fun and games, and increasing exposure to the human world through radio, bedtime books, and the full disc set of Animaniacs. As fall approached, the alpha and omega began bringing down additional prey so that they could store the meat away in the freezers for later use. The pups were now too big for them to safely assume they could provide enough food for them in winter; what had initially been an excessive precaution when preparing for a single pup was now a necessity for feeding eight full-grown wolves in the coldest, most barren months of the year.

As it turned out, the pups came to appreciate the fireplace even more as the nights grew longer and colder. They would crowd around it together, sleeping in a large pile of paws and fur and snoring to the lazy tune of the crackling logs. Tony and Steve, who were finally free to use modern technology and their voices, could finally request JARVIS to film some of these priceless moments for their own future use. One day too soon, these moments would be cherished and old memories that they would love to revisit. 

On one such day, when it was cold and grey outside and the pups had chosen to stay indoors where it was warm and cozy, Tony had just changed to his human form to set out large hunks of meat to thaw on the counter for the pups. One of their alphas was watching him with a peculiar interest and concentration. 

The practice of transformation was a difficult one to explain or coach another wolf through. The pups didn't grow up with human language, so to explain it with words was impossible. Instead, it functioned as an instinct that pups explored themselves when they were in a safe environment. After all, their wolf form remained a far safer existence: their jaws were powerful and their paws enormous, and as humans, they were slower and vulnerable. 

But this alpha was curious, and it had set its mind to giving it a try. Tony, whose back was turned while he was looking into the fridge, missed the moment entirely. The alpha, who had been lounging with some of its pups on a mattress in a semi-snooze, saw the whole thing, but was too far to help or in any way support the little kid who had no idea how to stand on her two feet. 

She hit the tiled floor with a startled cry, and Tony spun around immediately to see what had happened. She stared up at him with big, brown eyes he recognized from his childhood memories, from nights when his mother sang him lullabies until the monsters disappeared and a restful sleep would take him, and before he knew what was happening, he was in tears and on his knees before the little girl to scoop her up in his arms. 

“My brave girl,” he whispered with a big, watery smile, and he sat down on the tiles to lift her into his arms. She was somewhere between one and two years old, with curly brown hair, and her grandmother’s kind eyes. He kissed her forehead and cradled her close to his chest, close to his heart. 

“We love you, baby girl,” he promised her, just as Steve sat down beside them so that he, too, could say hello. “We’ve just met you, but we love you so much. Welcome home.”


	6. Civilization

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't be more grateful for the interest you've shown for this little world. Especially to everyone who started off confused in the first chapter but offered such helpful feedback, and then STUCK WITH IT(!), I just can't say _thank you_ enough times. 
> 
> This is the last part, but I'm totally here for any and all questions! I kinda adore this little world, if you couldn't tell ; )

There were certain things wolves never had to worry about. Most of these were developments intrinsically tied to the pups survival, such as their mobility, teething, and ability to digest different types of food. 

Few pups attempted to transform into their human form before they were strong enough to hunt and brawl as wolves. After all, the strength and safety of a one-year-old wolf was far greater than that of a one-year-old human. Most alphas and omegas did their best to keep their young pups in the wild as long as possible; these early stages were not only critical for a healthy development and desire to be part of both worlds, but it was also the most substantial time they would spend in a pack until they were ready to attempt a pack of their own. 

There were no guidelines or universal laws. Much like maternity or paternity leave, the flexibility of a mated pair to raise their family depended on many different factors. Most attempted to find six months of privacy to prepare their young for a future as a wolf and life in human society. Pairs with alpha pups often tried to stay longer; although omegas and betas also benefited greatly from their time in the wild, their nature was such that alphas would one day depend on their own skill and strength to survive. 

Howard had a different opinion about these precious moments, however. He had no patience for a life outside of human luxury and the thrill of establishing dominance in the market economy. To him, the life of a wolf had little to offer besides returning victorious over one’s chosen mate. Howard had searched far and wide for a reputable omega whom he would consider worthy of his pack. The two-time black widow had been an exceptional discovery. With Maria as his mate, Howard expected she would garner him great respect from fellow wolf and human business leaders alike, but also remain so emotionally compromised that she would likely require little attention but access to plenty of high-quality depressants. 

His assumptions had been accurate on both accounts. 

Tony’s alpha had relocated the pack as soon as the omega pup had opened its eyes. His omega had done what little it could to protect its pup: at no point had the alpha carried the pup, and rarely would the omega let its pup stray from its shadow. But the pup took its first steps inside of a country estate, and once it was able to consume partially digested meat, the alpha relocated the pack back to human society. 

Omega parents only nurse their young in wolf form. As a pup, Tony had been weaned off nursing in a matter of days, then given a cocktail of chemicals to speed up his transformation to human form so early that he suffered teething as a human baby. His omega had not known what to do; wolves never dealt with teething babies, and they were as unfamiliar with raising human babies as humans were of wolf pups. 

One of Howard’s few mistakes in life had been to hire a baseline human by the name of Jarvis as the estate butler and attendant to his son. When they first met, the unusual introduction of a stranger to an infant had scared Tony so badly he turned to his wolf form and bared its teeth at Jarvis. But ever so patient and kind, Jarvis asked that he and the young child in his care be left alone. He sat down in a corner then, beside a warm bowl of cream and some fresh water, and he waited for the omega pup’s tastebuds to overcome his fear. Once the pup dared to creep closer, Jarvis fed it small scraps of beef, bite sized bits that the pup gobbled up with great excitement. Yet trusting a man in wolf form was not the same as trusting him in human form, and Jarvis was not so insecure or unaware to try to rush the young pup. Jarvis and the omega pup spent days together before it dared to transform into a toddler again, but once it did, they were inseparable. This was the man who would spend his days running the household with the infant boy strapped to his chest, where the child either slept soundly, or learned the practice of human speech. In all but name, Jarvis became Tony’s alpha, who never let the pup out of his sight, provided it with unwavering protection, and tended to its every need with great devotion. He had been there for Tony’s first laugh, his first milk tooth, and his first word. 

Jarvis had been driving the night Tony lost his alpha and omega. 

In Steve, however, Tony had found a mate who was willing to be patient. After the first year in the den, where their pups had developed into strong, independent wolves who could track and bring down prey, as well as protect themselves, the alpha had only relocated the pack to the villa where the pups could ease into the human world in private. 

Maria, a gray alpha, had been the first to turn. She was strong enough that her legs could support her weight, but she struggled with the unusual balance necessary for bipedal motion. But she could see her alpha and omega shift between forms, she knew it was possible, and so stubbornly, she kept on trying. 

An omega boy they named Peter followed his sister’s lead later in the same week. The whole pack had turned in for the night, and it had been Tony’s turn to sleep in human form. When they had gone to bed, all the pups were curled up between their alpha and omega, but in the morning, Tony had woken up to the unforgettable sight of a small blond boy cradled between the giant forearms of the white alpha. It seemed to have been a decision the pup had made in its sleep; when he opened his eyes and saw Tony watching him with tears in his eyes, he had startled so badly that he immediately shifted back to wolf form and pounced into Tony’s open arms, seeking comfort from whatever had made its omega cry. 

It did not take Maria and Peter long to better develop their shifting, and soon, they learned to entertain themselves endlessly by using it to their advantage. They would terrorize their siblings as pups, then dash into the nearest room on four legs where they could immediately shift to lock the door behind them with their human fingers. To the horror of their siblings (and the irritation of their parents), the two of them would find the lids of pots and pans in the villa no matter where Steve and Tony tried to hide them, and proceeded to parade around banging them together, shocking the other pups awake until they or their parents gave chase. 

Unfortunately, chase was one of the pups’ favorite games, and so it served more as encouragement than punishment of any kind. 

While their parents made fairly easy work of getting all the energy and mischief out of them by bringing the children out to play in the yard under their attentive eyes, the other pups were at a loss. Without the benefit of nimble child fingers (and the important thumbs), it was difficult to retaliate adequately. In the end, Peter and Maria’s reign of power quickly led to the other pups’ growing interest in experimenting with how to shift, in order to level the playing field between them. 

A black alpha they named James first shifted in the middle of a wrestling stint with its omega sibling. When their teeth and paws had not been enough, the black alpha pinned its sibling, and shifted to human form to tickle the omega mercilessly. The white pup howled and writhed until finally their alpha intervened to stop the fight. James had been endlessly proud, and from then on, Peter knew not to mess with him. 

On a bright summer morning, when the pups had been out romping and chasing each other around the pool for a good time, the grey alpha leapt into the pool to escape the beta chasing it and shifted into human form to swim beneath the water where it was safely out of its sibling’s reach. 

The beta was too impatient to think its options through. It could easily have continued treading water until Maria could not hold her breath any longer; she would be an easy target then, out of breath and tired from in a human way that pups often didn’t feel. Tired of always being a step behind, however, the beta tried to shift right there in the pool so that it, too, could swim underwater. 

Their little beta daughter had been lucky that her omega had been watching them closely. As soon as the pup shifted, Tony ran up and scooped the struggling toddler out of the water. He sat back on the soft grass nearby with his daughter held close to his chest, and he patted her back until she coughed up all the water. Maria, who had quickly swam out of the water and rushed over on four legs, sat down next to Tony and reached out to hold her sister’s hand. Maria was still too young to understand, but she did sense that her sister was afraid, and so she stayed there until Sarah’s quivering lips turned up into a cautious smile. 

*** 

“I don’t think we can wait any longer, sweetheart.”

The omega let out a long, tired breath. It looked around them to take in the sprawl of full-grown wolves curled up all over itself and Steve in the large bed they had cobbled together to share. 

“We’re a few months shy of three years, baby,” Steve continued patiently, “if we wait any longer, they’ll have a hard time adjusting out of this life. They need more humans than us.”

The omega wouldn’t look at him. Instead, it lay its head down protectively over one of its pups, urging the sleeping babe a little closer. 

“Baby… Tony, come on, we need to talk about this,” Steve finally muttered, careful not to raise his voice. 

The omega rumbled its discontent, but after a brief, silent stand-off, it shifted to human form as its mate asked. 

“I know,” was the first thing Tony said. “I know. I just… we’re never going to get this back. And there’s sev—six. There is six of them,” he corrected, quietly. “What if we’ve neglected something? What if—”

“They are all strong hunters,” Steve told him in a gentle tone, confident in his assessment but still empathetic to Tony’s concerns. “They can fight. I’ve watched the alphas, baby, they’re—they’re not at risk. They’re big, they’re strong. They take after you.”

“What if we stay,” Tony still insisted. 

“Then what would happen to our betas?” Steve countered. “Once Sarah and Pax hit puberty, they won’t be able to shift: they’ll remain wolf or human. Without humanity… Tony, that’s not safe. They could become dangerous.” 

Tony had no argument to that. He looked down at the black beta sleeping against his legs, and he imagined a future world in which hunters came to destroy his pups. The thought alone made him want to kill. 

“I know how you feel,” Steve whispered, watching Pax sleep against Tony’s legs without a care in the world. “I promised you that nobody would hurt our pack, and I will hunt down anyone who tries. But they need to choose one day. We need to help them choose,” he amended gently. “Do we start something new? Somewhere far from the city, or do we go back to the tower?”

“You are alpha.”

“Don’t give me that,” Steve growled, and he (carefully) leaned over two of their pups to kiss the grim memory of his alpha’s abuse from Tony’s thoughts. “I am alpha, and I need you.”

Tony didn’t turn away after the kiss, and he tipped his head just enough to bump his nose against Steve’s in a quiet apology. “You prepared the Tower for our pack,” he eventually said. “We will need a bigger bed for them, and a bigger car to get them home, but you made the Tower ready for us. We will all be safe there.”

“Thank you, Tony,” Steve whispered. “We’ll leave in two weeks.”

*** 

“The world is going crazy over this, you know,” Bucky muttered over toast one morning. Steve hummed curiously from the stove, where he was frying up two dozen eggs with tomatoes for breakfast. “I can’t believe you took them out to the movies yesterday.”

“They’re four years old,” Steve said reasonably. “They need to see the city, see other people.”

“ _I_ know that,” Bucky reminded him. “I’ve been trying to convince _you_ for over a year. How did they like Zootopia?”

“They loved it—but I can’t get Joey to stop asking for donuts, and James nearly gave Tony a heart attack last night when he said he wanted to be a cab driver when he grows up.”

Bucky tried not to snicker too loudly, but Steve’s side-eye informed him he had clearly failed. He picked up the tablet he’d been reading the news headlines on again in an effort to hide from Steve’s obvious lack of humor. 

“People Magazine is convinced you’re the omega now,” Bucky said instead. “So is US Weekly. Huffington Post polls are still open, and The Sun decided that you took two omegas as mates, got them both pregnant, and then killed the other omega before you and Tony returned to society.”

Steve rolled his eyes at the hare-brained theory. “I admire the packs who can pull that off, but The Sun clearly hasn’t met my mate,” Steve pointed out. “Tony would’ve killed me in my sleep if I brought home a secondary omega.”

“Guess wolves gotta have their millennial culture, too,” Bucky seconded with a grin, though he sounded a little distracted as he flipped through the pages of whatever article had caught his attention. “Wouldn’t fly in the 30’s, I can tell you that.”

“Yeah, but what did? It would’ve helped people like my alpha, that’s for sure,” Steve said quietly, plating the fried eggs and tomatoes for the kids, before moving the slow cooker to the counter to add some refried black beans to each plate. “Maybe she wouldn’t have struggled as much with me if she had one more omega to help. And now? With the cost of medical bills, rent, education—everything is skyrocketing. The price of avocados has gone up 100% just in the time I’ve been unfrozen. Three parents is starting to make more sense, if you ask me.” 

“I don’t know,” Bucky said after some thought. “I get betas having wolf partners; not everyone wants kids, and it’s nice to be with someone who gets it.”

Steve called an apology over his shoulder before starting up the juicer, a loud and obnoxious machine, but one that was Steve-approved for getting the best fresh-squeezed orange juice every morning. As soon as it was finished and he could start pouring the juice out into glasses, he glanced back at Bucky and asked, “Do people give you and Natasha shit?”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Bucky said with an exaggerated snort of amusement, but Steve gave him a look that spoke volumes of how little he believed him. Bucky only shrugged. “A family wasn’t in the cards for either of us. And she gets the loneliness, you know? Missing the wolf, the pack life. This work for us.”

“So what’s got you making that face?” Steve asked as he stuck a plate of breakfast down in front of Bucky, a quiet hint to put the tablet away. 

“Things just changed,” Bucky huffed, “and I get it. For the better and all; I get that. We can be two betas in public without getting looks, and it feels great. So I feel like shit when I still catch myself doing it with other folks, you know? We saw an omega-human couple last night, ‘out and proud.’ My first thought was Sister Catherine’s mean look and ruler.”

Steve came around and squeezed his best friend’s shoulder gently in sympathy. “Just cause we live in the 21st century doesn’t change that we grew up in the 1930s. One battle at a time: now, it’s breakfast.”

“So bossy,” Bucky drawled, but instead of eating he got up to round up the pack. “Kids! Breakfast, get in here before your alpha loses patience!”

“Don’t lie to my children, Buck!” Steve called after him with a wry smile, but instead of Bucky calling back or popping back in, it was Tony who came into the kitchen next, almost dressed for work aside from a tie that hung around his collar, undone. 

“That’s their godparent?” Tony commented sarcastically, and Steve rolled his eyes at him before reeling him in for a kiss by his loose tie. “Mmmfhi, babe, good morning to you, too.”

“Good morning,” Steve whispered back against Tony’s lips, then gave him a quick peck again before stepping back. “Finish your food before running off—or I’ll have Pepper bring it to you in front of the board.”

“Damn,” Tony laughed quietly, but he sat at the table to do as he was told. “If People Magazine could see you now, they’d know who was alpha.”

“Oh, no. You, too?”

Tony snickered around his mouthful of toast and fried egg and gave Steve a flat look. “The world thinks I’m either a next level mutant omega for having so many pups, or the strongest alpha there ever was to survive mating with Captain America. You want me to ignore that, Steve? The Board is eating out of the palm of my hands and I haven’t even gotten to the meeting yet.”

“Incoming!” Bucky roared from down the hall, and a heartbeat later, he came charging into the kitchen chasing one of their little girls while he carried one toddler under each arm, and two more clinging to each of his legs. The last kid all but strangled him as he clutched his godfather’s neck and hung over Bucky’s back like a squirming, giggling cape. 

“Joey, what’ve I said about choking your Uncle Bucky?” Steve chided and came around quickly to pull the kid off of Bucky, who probably would’ve gone blue in the face before he complained. “Kids, find a chair, come on. Sit in the chairs, like your dad.”

“Uncle Buck’s standing!” James felt the need to point out without ever letting go of Bucky’s right leg. 

“That’s his problem, not yours,” Steve muttered and tried to herd the kids to their chairs. 

Tony picked Pax up into his lap, then quickly did the same for Sarah who was pouting by his side, and he kissed the top of their heads in turn while helping to get them started with their food. With Bucky rounding James up, that left only Maria, Joey, and Peter for Steve to deal with alone. 

“Babe, you sure you don’t need any help?” Tony asked over Sarah and Pax’s heads. “Just to clean, maybe.”

“No, Tony,” Steve answered as patiently as he could answer the same question ten times a week. “I don’t want any strangers in my house to clean, to cook, or to help me watch the children. No strangers in the penthouse, period.”

“That’s why his best friend is their godparent,” Buck added, smirking proudly.

“They still outnumber you three to one,” Tony reminded them, but tried to accept alpha’s rule as alpha’s rule. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

“Natasha is coming by later,” Bucky offered, and Steve looked visibly relieved.

“I’ll send Happy up here to mop the floors between errands,” Tony promised, too. “He’s still weirdly proud about it? I heard him tell Rhodey last week about how he couldn’t stay to watch the game cause he was assisting Captain America.”

“Daddy!” Maria cheered, hearing her dad’s codename, and from across the table in Bucky’s lap, James shushed her and loudly kid-whispered, “Shhh! It’s _a secret._ ”

Maria gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, and she looked up at Steve with regret in her big brown eyes. 

“That’s alright, cookie,” Steve promised her with a quiet laugh, crouching down beside her chair to kiss her cheek. “Daddy was Captain America for many years, but now I’m daddy. My only job is to keep all of you safe.” 

“Hey, how’d you little nuggets like to watch some more Avengers Assemble after breakfast? See some of the things your papa and daddy used to do?”

Steve and Tony gave him a quelling look even as the kids cheered with excitement. It was their kids’ favorite Saturday morning cartoon, except, this wasn’t a Saturday.

“Not before you finish breakfast,” Steve conceded in the end, and the kids returned to their food with renewed interest. 

Glad that the kids seemed dedicated to finishing their food for once, Steve pulled up his own chair between Peter and Joey, and joined them in the rare but cherished experience of sharing a meal with his pack. 

*** 

Since their return from the wild, the Penthouse had undergone major remodeling in order to accommodate the six pups. The largest bedroom now was theirs; six beds were set up around the room against the wall, with a massive sunken bed at the center where the pups could sleep together if they wanted. 

In practice, they rarely used those beds. After years of sleeping as a family, the isolation of individual beds felt daunting and uncomfortable. 

Every night at seven, before the pups’ bedtime, Steve would come into their room to read them a bedtime story. Sometimes he had a book with him, but usually, the siblings would have fought amongst themselves to decide what book their alpha should read well before Steve arrived. 

“Daddy, is it true?” Peter was the first to ask when Steve closed the night’s chapter on the Adventures of the Pirate King. “He was a wolf?”

“Why did he run so much?” Pax wondered, too, frowning at the idea. “It’s so much faster in wolf!”

Steve pulled Pax closer and pressed a kiss to his hair, then reached to squeeze Peter’s foot, since he was farther away. “He was, the Pirate King was a wolf once,” Steve explained calmly, desperately trying not to hold Pax closer to him at the thought. One day too soon, his two beta pups would have to choose one world over the other. He would never smell them again, never run with them across the wild. And much worse, they would be robbed of the same. They would never know the comfort of their pack scent again, or smell their siblings' pups. 

“He was a beta, and a great legend,” Steve said with a smile he hoped disguised his private thoughts. “A hero. When the King had told him to hunt the Monsters of the South Lands, what did he do?” 

“They weren’t monsters!” Maria insisted, waving her dragon plushie in her righteous anger. “They were like us.”

“You’re right, cookie, they’re like us. There’s good and bad in everyone, wolf or human. The monsters and the hero were all beta,” Steve explained patiently. “One day, all beta have to choose the wolf, or the human. The Pirate King could help the wolves, because he knew about them, too. He knew both the world of the wolf, and the world of the human. The ‘monsters’ had been away for so long, they didn’t understand people anymore: they needed a person to understand them.”

“Like your bad guys?” Peter wondered now. “What about Loki? Or Hitler?”

“Daddy, how many times did you punch Hi’ler?” James asked, too, while chewing on a pillow. “Ma’be he’d been nicer if you hugged him.”

Steve opened and closed his mouth a couple of times like a fish out of water, not sure how to answer either of them. “Well, uh, honey,” he started slowly to stall for time, and oh, god, where was Tony? 

“It was a little more urgent than that. They were really bad to many, many people. Thor tried to talk to Loki,” he suddenly remembered. “He tried to talk to him, like the Pirate King talked to the monsters. But Loki didn’t want to listen to his brother, while the monsters did.”

“What if you choose wrong?” Sarah asked in a small voice. 

A stronger man that Steve might have held back his tears, but Steve couldn’t. He tried to smile for her sake, so with tears in his eyes and a big smile on his face, he said, “Your choice is never wrong, sweetheart. As a wolf, you return to the wild, you—you live free. As a human, you can stay in society. But so long as you love both sides, are good to both sides, you will never be wrong.”

Pax, who was cuddled up right next to Steve, watched him with a confused frown. “Daddy, why are you crying?” 

“Because daddy loves you so much,” Steve answered immediately, and he couldn’t resist pressing another kiss to the top of his pup’s head. “Daddy and papa love you so, so much.”

Tony walked in to the sight of their children overpowering Steve en masse. The kids shrieked and giggled in delight at having pinned their alpha. As Tony listened carefully, he could hear Steve laugh-crying his surrender. 

“Did you break your alpha again?” Tony called loudly enough to be heard, and the kids bounced up to stare at him, caught red-handed, before rushing over to their omega. It had been _hours_ since they last saw him at lunch. 

“Papa!”

“Oof—hey, hi, kiddos,” Tony laughed as soon as he caught his breath, and he wrapped his arms around them all the best he could. “Come on—come on, back, let’s get back to bed, daddy’s waiting.”

“Daddy could use a minute,” Steve croaked from the sunken bed, where he was still recovering from having six overgrown four-year-olds climbing on him. 

“Hey, kids, it’s Friday,” Tony said to the kids then as a distraction, “why don’t you run to the library and pick a second story? Something you think papa would like to hear, too.”

Not a single child dared to risk their great luck by lingering, and they all dashed to their library to do exactly what their omega had said. 

Tony watched them run off with a smile, then made his way over to the sunken bed where his husband was stretched out and relaxed. 

“Anyone ever tell you how sexy you are?” Tony wondered innocently enough, going down on his knees to straddle Steve’s hips. He brushed a chaste, teasing kiss over Steve’s parted, expectant lips, and purred, “Alpha.”

“My omega,” Steve replied breathlessly.

“One more story,” Tony said in a calm, patient tone that bellied the needful look in his eyes. “Then, it’s my turn to be put to bed.”

Steve laughed, quietly and surprised, against Tony’s smiling lips. “It is, is it?”

“Yes, alpha,” Tony whispered, “I’m afraid I insist.”

Steve watched him with reverent wonder, and leaned up just enough to taste his lips again in a wet kiss. 

“Your wish is my command.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Commissioned fan art](https://78.media.tumblr.com/bde71bbba71a2c37c31352433ba9d955/tumblr_p8uxs9YcUI1s8ys3zo1_540.png) of the little family by the best doggo fan artist ever, [yawpkatsi](http://yawpkatsi.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Thank you for reading! If you ever feel like a Stony chat, [I'm on Tumblr (as shetlandowl)](http://shetlandowl.tumblr.com/) more often than I should be.


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